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Post by wsuraider09 on Mar 2, 2015 10:59:38 GMT -5
Final figures have been tabulated (by yours truly) for the 2014-2015 Men's Basketball Season. These numbers reflect true home games only. All figures provided by official box scores.
2014-2015 Average Attendance
1. Wright State 4,510 2. Green Bay 3,581 3. Milwaukee 3,134 4. Valparaiso 2,909 5. UIC 2,827 6. Detroit 2,591 7. Oakland 2,250 8. Youngstown St. 2,039 9. Cleveland St. 1,996
2014-2015 Average Attendance for In-Conference Games
1. Wright State 4,718 2. Green Bay 3,964 3. Valparaiso 3,286 4. Milwaukee 3,030 5. UIC 2,903 6. Oakland 2,756 7. Detroit 2,711 8. Cleveland St. 2,590 9. Youngstown St. 2,428
**Milwaukee was the only team whose average dropped for in-conference games played. However, this is largely due to their 10,000+ showing for their games against the Wisconsin Badgers**
Games Over 5,000+ fans in attendance
T1. Wright State 3 T1. UIC 3 T3. Valparaiso 1 T3. Milwaukee 1 T3. Green Bay 1 T3. Detroit 1
Oakland, Cleveland State, and Youngstown State had no games with 5,000+
Top 10 Games by Attendance
1. University of Wisconsin @ Milwaukee 10,120 2. Valparaiso @ Wright State 7,664 3. Oakland @ Detroit 6,552 4. Oakland @ Green Bay 6,019 5. Valparaiso @ UIC 5,731 6. Western Illinois @ UIC 5,575 7. Loyola(IL) @ UIC 5,449 8. Belmont @ Wright State 5,437 9. Wright State @ Valparaiso 5,050 10. Youngstown St. @ Wright St. 5,005
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Post by hhgreen on Mar 2, 2015 12:02:40 GMT -5
Nice to know we lead the league in attendance.
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Post by wsuraider09 on Mar 2, 2015 12:18:54 GMT -5
I was really surprised that attendance stayed up, even though our performance tanked as the season went on. I'm surprised we led the league by as much as we did considering the year we had. Most surprising (to me) is how horrid Cleveland State's attendance was with the great season they were putting together. They only had 3 games with over 3,000 people. A team like Oakland would probably kill to have the capacity CSU is squandering. But it is Cleveland we are talking about...it's the armpit of the midwest. I went to a Raider game a few years back on the bus trip...probably my least favorite venue to visit in the league.
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Post by hittmanraider on Mar 2, 2015 16:49:28 GMT -5
Couple of thoughts on this. I am not shocked we were tops in attendence again in the league, A - Southwest ohio is a great area for ncaa hoops in general B - we have the best arena in the league. Couple of thoughts on attendence around the league, this can be slightly misleading i.e. if a school like Valpo packed in 4000 in their gym every game, they still would have been behind our average simply due to the size of the facility. As far as CSU, I was there with the team when in college, and I spoke with a manager from CSU and I made the comment of how you have a good program why does no one come? His answer, would you rather drive downtown to pay to watch Cleveland State, or stay home and watch LeBron James on TV. That summed it up for me pretty easy. Last thought, I went to UIC over the weekend for the game. I have been there many times for Raider games and every game they bus in people, and I mean like 80-90% of the crowd from poor neighborhoods, shelters, childrens programs, etc. I am all for community service, but that is how they have 2500+ avg.
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Post by wolf41 on Mar 2, 2015 17:55:23 GMT -5
Yes, I have been to many games at UIC and I think most of their headcount can be attributed to kids being bused to the games. We do a bit of that by having basketball games during halftime, school choirs, guest drill teams, etc., but UIC wins for bussing kids into the games. Maybe CSU should do that as well.
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Post by hhgreen on Mar 2, 2015 18:50:42 GMT -5
Even though the record was not as good this year I thought the product on the court was better than last year. The freshmen were making it exciting to watch knowing that they will be back for 3 more years in the green and gold. The seniors did what they could and the rest of our injured players will be back hopefully in better shape next year.
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Post by keithfromxenia on Mar 2, 2015 18:56:18 GMT -5
I have not been to all hl venues, but csu is the first place i can remember seeing seats blocked off by tarps.
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Post by hhgreen on Mar 3, 2015 10:17:10 GMT -5
What should the standard be? 20+ win seasons and no Big Dance invite or a 500 season and win the Horizon Tourney and go to the Big Dance in March? I prefer to have the NCAA banner hanging from the rafters even with a .500 season.
20+ wins in the Horizon does not guarantee a spot in the final 64. Our schedule with 20 wins means nothing at selection time unless we win our tourney.
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Post by ohiopirate on Mar 3, 2015 10:35:43 GMT -5
I think tournament appearances should be the standard - regardless of record. That being said, we will need a team good enough to win 20+ games in most cases to win the conference tournament. We can catch lightening in a bottle on occasion but more often than not a team that was good all year is going to win the tournament.
I liked Brownell's theory on going to the NCAA that he wanted every player he recruited to get there - meaning at least once every 4 years you should be taking your team to the Big Dance. I think that is a reasonable standard to strive towards for a mid-major. Once we reach that we can worry about advancing or going more often but I think by most measures that would equal a fairly successful mid-major program.
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Post by jumbojimbo on Mar 3, 2015 12:23:55 GMT -5
ha ha, You fell for another thread hijack. Granted, the on court success has an impact on attendance, but looks like this is going to devolve into yet another discussion of what "success" means to mid-majors.
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Post by hhgreen on Mar 3, 2015 12:35:25 GMT -5
A top 50-75 RPI every year should be another standard for the program not lagging in the bottom half or worse.
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Post by ohiopirate on Mar 3, 2015 12:36:48 GMT -5
I was fine with that thread hijack as it didn't seem to have the same tired agenda and actually contributed something useful.
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Post by hhgreen on Mar 3, 2015 12:44:13 GMT -5
Attendance would be better if we were in that top 75 RPI and that would mean the competition would be better as well.
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Post by wolf41 on Mar 3, 2015 13:13:06 GMT -5
Frankly, I'd be thrilled to once again be in the top 120 in the next year.
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Post by circle70 on Mar 3, 2015 20:24:39 GMT -5
UIC fan here. I keep track of our attendance on my own and I found a discrepancy. My figures show a total attendance for 15 games of 45,004--an average of 3,000 per game (versus your number of 2,827). I verified my numbers with the figures at UICFlames.com. It doesn't change our position, still 5th in the HL.
Your numbers for conference games are on the money as well as the number of games over 5,000. We're tied for 1st with you guys for the 5 grand games.
I bring this up just to say that our attendance is pretty damn good for a horsecrap program (110 losses in the last 5 years). Imagine what it would be if we won a few more games.
Regarding the neighborhood kids padding the numbers: what we need is a consistent method of counting attendance. Is it tickets sold? tickets distributed? fannies in the stands? An HL policy for one of these methods should not be that difficult to incorporate.
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